Once again, multiple groups engaged in activism at the Rose Parade--despite this year's cold temperature. (Last year, animal rights activists protested a Sea World float while Occupy Wall St. preceded the parade with an unofficial float).

On New Year's Eve, local activists visited the parade route carrying signs conveying the number of U.S. troops killed in America's military ventures in the Middle East. (Each casualty was represented by a "rose"--needless to say, there were a lot of "roses" on the signs.)

On New Year's Day, one group (organized by Stop Mass Incarceration Network, So Cal) protested the police murders of people of color. Before the parade, they stood at several locations, including parts of Old Town, dressed in black, holding signs, and chanting, "I can't breath." (Some parade spectators responded with, "I can breath." Other bystanders reportedly joined the demonstrations.) Police were especially strict with this group, forbidding them from even walking on Colorado Boulevard, which tends to be pretty accessible before the parade--even by activists, usually--and being rather particular about where they could stand on sidewalks.

Meanwhile, Occupy Wall St. followed the Rose Parade with a "people's parade." Despite being held up for a time by police and Homeland Security, Occupy made their way up the route and received a lot of notice. One float with the message "Gov Brown: Don't Frack CA" prompted spectators to ask what fracking is. Reportedly, "thousands of spectators remained in the grandstands to watch the unsanctioned post-parade."

A coalition of lawyers, law students, and others acting in solidarity protested police killings of unarmed people by staging a die-in outside Stanley Mosk Courthouse on the raining morning of Tuesday, December 16, 2014. The call to action encouraged others "to protest these police killings, the failure to hold police accountable for these deaths, and the system that perpetuates these racist practices. We act in solidarity with others taking action to show that Black Lives Matter."

On Black Friday, three demonstrations against Hewlett-Packard occurred in front of large stores in Greater Los Angeles.

Besides its involvement with Israel, HP is involved in government surveillance of citizens around the world, including in the U.S. About a dozen people turned out for each of the two-hour demonstrations.

SAN FERNANDO, CA – On Tuesday, November 11, veterans fighting foreclosure and homeless vets joined Occupy Fights Foreclosures marching in the San Fernando Valley Veterans Day Parade. One out of three unhoused people are veterans. Veteran homeowners and homeless are marching to bring awareness to the ongoing foreclosure crisis. Many veterans continue to fight to stay in their homes while some less fortunate already have joined the countless other homeless people and families on the streets without a roof over their heads. During the foreclosure crisis, banks have taken full advantage of our veterans, who not only have to fight to keep and find jobs, but have to deal with long term illnesses, the high cost of medications, and a bureaucratic system moves slowly, putting them at high risk to lose their homes.

Lamoreaux judges turned Lexi Dillon (pictured at left) over to a foreigner whom the Tustin police cast reports showed sodomized and raped the girl repeatedly. The foreigner is no longer allowed in the U.S. and due to a lifting of the travel ban on Lexi, as far as anyone knows, neither is she. The alleged molester only has citizenship in Thailand, the site of considerable sex trafficking.

Massive fear surrounds the trafficking of Jonah Rief to Australia via the San Diego courts. A man who is not the father and who did not have to prove paternity was allowed to take Jonah Rief to Australia and he did so using a falsified passport calling the "Rief" boy "Sullivan." Alabama had issued a protective order against Brian Sullivan on behalf of the child and on behalf of the mother Tammy Rief after Sullivan or someone associated with him uploaded misleading YouTube videos appearing to be aimed at getting people to kidnap Jonah from his Alabama home. California chose not to respect the jurisdictional orders of the court in Alabama, which was Jonah Rief's home state. Jonah entered Australia with Sullivan on February 26, 2013 and disappeared. Nude photos that appeared on March 4, 2013, on the Facebook page of Sullivan's accomplice Sara Francis AKA Denise Glasier AKA Denise Sullivan are believed to have been sales photos.

LOS ANGELES--People assembled the morning of November 5, 2014 outside Los Angeles City Hall to participate in the worldwide #Anonymous Million Mask March. Signs bearing the messages "We Don't Want to Live in a World Government for the Corporations" and "Occupy Love" were among the dozens on display.

. . . As the march moved into the open space of the shopping mall at Hollywood & Highland, LAPD officers ringed the protest in pairs. Private security officers also came out to confront the masked masses, who continued dancing and waving signs. By remaining in one place for over a half an hour, the scattered participants were able to reunite, and the march was hundreds strong as it resumed down the Walk of Fame.

@LAPDHollywood tweeted "Please avoid Hollywood Blvd near highland due to protest" around 1:30 PM. LAPD Media Relations advised CBSLA.com "An anti-police brutality protest shut down a stretch of Hollywood Boulevard. More than 100 protesters took part in the march."

. . . Citizen journalist @PMBeers expressed her feelings about police: "The fact that riot cops come to peaceful protests and that intimidates people and makes them afraid to express their grievances is insulting. The fact that people equate protesting with getting arrested even if no laws are broken is insulting. It took me two years to realize that yes, in fact, all cops actually are bastards even if they think they are good people doing good things." #ACAP

. . . Led by a wide "The Nightmares From Wall Street" banner, the ghosts, reapers, and bankers marched north on Vine St, then west on Hollywood Blvd towards the intersection of Hollywood & Highland. The crowd responded positively to the procession, shouting out remarks that the "Ghosts of Wall Street" was both creative and true.

On the sidewalk outside the Dolby Theater, across from the El Capitan theater, the activists paused for a moment of street theater. . . .

If we wish to honestly "clean up" Venice we need an expanded storage program, an adequate number of trash cans and 24/7 bathrooms. The current city program of criminalizing unhoused people does not solve anything and wastes hundreds of thousands of dollars. "Cleaning up" cannot equal criminalization. That is discrimination, and is illegal. The act of being without housing is not a crime.

. . . If we had an expanded storage program and adequate public hygiene, like they do in other communities, like Costa Mesa, [Councilman Mike] Bonin could accomplish his goal of "cleaning up Venice" but without being punitive or harassing vulnerable people. He could actually help them. He could help all of us! It would cost the city far less and be a huge win/win for Venice.

. . . Why not try? Bonin has been made aware of this inclusive program but has not seen fit to implement one yet. He needs to feel public support. . .

Columbus Day has been suffering setbacks of late. Minneapolis; Berkeley, California; and most recently Seattle now observe Indigenous People's Day instead. San Francisco has Italian Heritage Day; Hawaii, Discoverers Day (i.e., the discovery of the islands by Polynesians); and South Dakota, Native American Day. Venezuela dropped Columbus Day in 2002 in favor of Day of Indigenous Resistance. Mexico, El Salvador, Argentina, and other countries celebrate Dia de la Raza. While Columbus Day's still recognized here in Southern California, a new annual protest occurs in downtown L.A.

While en route to the ornate Cathedral of Los Angeles, we got a clear view of it with a homeless camp in the foreground. Well over 30 protesters lined the sidewalk across the street from the church with signs. Several horrific and barbaric deeds of Columbus and other pious Europeans were mentioned via megaphone as patrons, including a large group of teenagers, exited the church and stood in front.

Dozens of voters occupied the median of Sunset Blvd outside the Stewart and Lynda Resnick mansion in Beverly Hills Thursday afternoon to declare “No More Sweetheart Deals for Billionaire Farmers!” Hand-painted signs pleaded for “real water solutions, not Prop 1” and decried the water bond as “water for the 1%,” not for the people of California. #NoOnProp1

At the “No on Prop 1” press conference, actors portraying the Resnicks toasted the growth of their own wealth thanks to powerful friends in Sacramento, while a tuxedo-clad waiter held a tray of POM Wonderful juice, Fiji Water, and Wonderful Pistachios (brands owned by the Resnicks’ umbrella company Roll Global). The skit touted record profits in a drought year, revealing the business model of growing water-intensive crops on toxic Central Valley soil for export to foreign markets in China.

INGLEWOOD, CA -- Dressed as bees, several people collapsed on the floor of pesticide aisle at Home Depot on S La Cienega Blvd this Saturday morning.

Aside from the theatrics, the activists cheerfully announced to shoppers and staff alike, "today is International Honey Bee Day! Join the fight to Save the Bees!" and handed out pamphlets titled "The Plight of the Honeybee" linking the collapse of 40% of honey bee colonies in the last decade in the United States to the use of insecticidal seed treatment in genetically engineered (GE or GMO) crops.

Other actions in Southern California included ones in San Diego and Long Beach.